Human Flower Project
Can’t See the Florist for the Elephant
A beloved icon of Seattle may go the way of the flower business it once advertised.
Installing the elephant
Aurora Flower Shop
Seattle, WA
Photo: See Seattle
It’s a sign of the times.
Since Hurricane Katrina washed away so many places, things, belongings, it’s only natural to fumble for our bearings. What are the landmarks that anchor us? What objects really matter?
Susan Paynter of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer looks around her own city for “scraps of Seattle’s security blanket” and realizes “too many already have been lost.” She laments the demise of yet another piece of public pop art, the life-sized concrete Indian elephant that “may be standing on its last log-size legs above the shuttered shop at 8808 Aurora Ave. N.”
The property, formerly Aurora Flower Shop, is for sale, and likely will become a parking lot in this now-distressed quarter of the city.
Paynter writes, “It’s somehow comforting, while driving south with supplies from Home Depot or north with a bouquet for a Washelli gravesite, to see that the elephant endures.” She reports how such kitschy signage has become the focus of scholarship and conservation efforts, as well as general nostalgia.
Hyman Spitz Florist, Brooklyn, NY
Photo: Forgotten New York
Is this irony or just blind aestheticism? Seattle’s preservationists say, ““Although the (flower shop) building is not historically or architecturally significant, the elephant on the roof is a prime example of what architectural historians call ‘programmatic architecture.’” But the condition—and, in most cases, the existence—of “programmatic architecture” like the crumbling elephant depends on the vitality of those “not historically or architecturally significant” small businesses, the flowers shops. While we’re hand-wringing about funny old signs, what about the human enterprises that built or commissioned them?
This recent article from the Indianapolis Star reports that 20-25% of that city’s small flower shops closed in the past 10 years. The small florists’ market share dropped 10% during that time. As for the number of florists, The American Floral Endowment says that nationwide there were 27,204 traditional flower shops in 1993, and only 22,753 in 2002.
A New York flower shop glows at night
from the Roadside Peek collection
Photo: Steve Felder
We, too, love old timey commercial art, and offer up some examples, both shiny and shabby, today. But all these wonderful creations were paid for and maintained by flower sellers. Before shedding a tear for the concrete pachyderm, (and before making another trip to Home Depot or another big boxer to buy flowers) let’s find out what happened to that “shuttered shop” below the sign.